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Stroggos
Stroggos is the home world of the hostile cybernetic Strogg race. It is an Earth-like planet, similar in size, gravity and atmospheric pressure, with an atmosphere of similar composition to present day Earth's, enabling the world to support Human and other forms of organic life. Most of its known and charted surface is comprised of vast industrial wastelands, giving the planet its distinctive brown/orange color. The planet was discovered to be the home world of the Strogg at some point between the events of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and Quake 2, which eventually resulted in two large-scale Human invasions being launched in retaliation against it, aiming to end the Strogg threat comprehensively by global genocide. Despite extensive military operations being undertaken on the planet's surface, little of substance is known about the alien world, beyond the fact that the Strogg call it home. A ring of asteroids was noted to be orbiting the planet during the first invasion. Stroggos has been stripped of much of its considerable resource wealth by the belligerent Strogg civilization, which has mined most of the metals, minerals, fossil fuels and other raw materials that they could acquire (although some mining operations are still ongoing, deep beneath the surface). Most life-forms on the ecologically-ravaged Stroggos have suffered from one of several grim fates, including being forcibly appropriated by the Strogg either to become one of them or to become their food, becoming mutated, or being driven to outright extinction. History Nearly nothing is known about the history of Stroggos. Supposedly, it was a planet similar to Earth before being industrialized and polluted beyond recognition by the Strogg. What is definitively known in this: There are two large craters on the surface of Stroggos, one twice the size of the smaller. The smaller impact event occurred later, as it happened on the southern rim of the former crater. Both events probably took place long before the Strogg as they are now existed. The Strogg It is unknown how the Strogg civilization appeared, although an SMC marine has theorized that they are the remnants of an artifically created race of super-warriors that took part in some ancient war (a biological weapon). With the death of their creators, the Strogg continued to do what they do best - fight wars and assimilate races. Another SMC marine expressed the opinion that the Strogg symbolize the next step in human evolution, as humanity becomes increasingly reliant on technology, damaging their homeworld's ecology in the process. Invasion of Earth Stroggos was first made known to mankind after the Strogg invaded Earth. The humans were able to chase the invaders off the planet and subsequently found out that the aliens had travelled to the Solar System via an interplanetary gateway from their homeworld. Thus began the First Invasion of Stroggos when Earth sent an assault force through the gateway, arriving at Stroggos. Thanks to the Strogg's powerful air defences, the Big Gun, the Human Invasion was quickly decimated, with only a few surviving marines landing on the planet. Most of these were captured and prepped for Stroggification in the factories. A lone marine was able to complete all four objectives of Operation Alien Overlord single-handed. With the Strogg leader dead and the Big Gun destroyed, the humans were able to launch a full-scale ground attack on the Nexus. The first attack failed thanks to the intervention of the second Makron, but it was followed by a successful second attack with the humans taking advantage of the recently Stroggified Kane who was able to reach the Nexus directly and destroy it, winning the war. With their communications knocked out, the Strogg presumably went into disarray and any stragglers wiped out, thus probably defeating the Strogg. Extinction (Non-Canon) According to the Ground Zero ending, a planet-wide chain reaction occurred as a result of the destruction of the Gravity Well, obliterating all life on the planet surface. This, however, contradicts the plot of Quake 4 and is therefore accepted to be non-canonical. It can be assumed that the Gravity Well was indeed destroyed, but the chain reaction either didn't happen, or it did but its area of effect was limited and certainly not global. Geography, Economy, and Cities Cerberon Cerberon is the largest city on the planet, and the only one able to be identified as the seat of power on Stroggos. It is the military and political heart of the Strogg civilization. Located in the northern reaches of Crater Majoris, the capital city houses the Makron's seat of power - Cerberon Palace. It is from here that the Strogg race is directed in its endless war to conquer and assimilate more races - a basic necessity for its continued survival. Several important facilities are located within or near the capital city, such as the Strogg's primary means of interplanetary travel; the Black Hole Generator, and one of the mainstays of the Strogg planetary defense systems; the Big Gun. Far to the south of the main city and its defenses lies Crater Minor, its mountainous northern rim towering on the southern horizon of Cerberon, beyond the Big Gun. It is home to several Strogg military bases, warehousing districts, even a Logistics Complex and an important Tactical Command Center. Industrial Sectors Cerberon is surrounded by an extensive industrial sector, which includes a major power plant, an organic processing factory, Steedium and Thaelite mines, a Security and Prison Compound, and an extensive warehousing district. There are many other industrial complexes scattered across the surface and sub-surface of the planet, serving all manner of different purposes (e.g. Stroggification, Stroyent production, toxic waste disposal, etc.). Orbit Moons Stroggos has three known moons (all of which can be glimpsed in the introductory cutscene of Quake II Mission Pack: Ground Zero), at least one of which is host to enormous Strogg shipyards, military base and an industrial region, together containing Stroyent processing and dispersal facilities, a large power plant and vast subsurface hangars for Strogg spaceships. Its base commander is a Warlord in possession of a Jorg battle suit of near-identical design to the Makron's. Asteroid Belt Stroggos has an asteroid belt of a significant size orbiting it. Hiding among the countless asteroids is the Makron’s hidden retreat, only accessible via a powerful Teleportation device located on top of the Palace. During the first invasion of Stroggos, the Strogg were readying a counter-fleet there to strike back at the orbiting fleet supporting the ground invasion. However, a lone Marine down on the surface of Stroggos, the last surviving member of his squad, managed to stow away aboard a cargo freighter heading to the Moon Base and destroy it, wrecking the docked fleet in the process. Space Stations There was at least one free-floating space station in orbit around Stroggos at the time of The First Invasion of Stroggos. Its purpose was to act as a communications satellite, but with whom it communicated is not known. It may have served multiple roles, allowing the Strogg leadership and the Nexus to maintain contact with and control of Strogg outposts, facilities, bases and other off-world operations in orbit, on Stroggos' moon(s?), even elsewhere in the Stroggos solar system and beyond. A lone marine managed to locate the teleport during his grim journey across Stroggos' surface and board the station, rendering it inoperable. The Planet Little is known about Stroggos' origins though it can be speculated that it follows a similar pattern to Earth. The planet is roughly the same size and belongs to a a star system with a similar sun to our own, orbiting at an eerily familiar distance thereto. It has been portrayed differently. While Quake 2 portrays Stroggos as a planet possessing a dangerous ring of asteroids and much space debris orbiting it that might endanger incoming craft, Quake 4 instead portrays it as a completely barren orange desert world all across its surface, the industrial Strogg wastelands easily visible from space. In addition, Quake 2 portrays the planet with a barren dull gray-brown coloration, although much of the environment when the marine lands is orange in coloration, including the sky. While the planet in Quake 4 appears orange, the sky no longer has its coloration and is instead simply a polluted cloudy blue and gray sky that is more Earth-like. The answer may be that the planet undergoes different phases - it is not known if planet is heated by multiple suns although only one is ever visible at a given time, which could mean that different kinds of star were responsible for the different lighting effects between Quake 2 and Quake 4. An explanation for the absence of the space debris and the ring around Stroggos in Quake 4 could be that the Strogg had devised an artificial way of sustaining a ring of space debris as a defense against the Earth invasion, which was somehow disabled in the human war effort at some time between Quake 2 and Quake 4. No definitive conclusions can be arrived at by the humans, who have had little time to study Stroggos' exact position and nature, so much of a higher priority has the Strogg's military defeat been. Environment Stroggos is mainly a barren wasteland according to most surveillance and reconnaissance efforts. However, there are dense concentrations of machinery and industrial equipment making highly capable production centers for the Strogg military. In addition, countless communication centers and factories have been identified across the surface. The Strogg population, all of which are classed as military personnel, reside within the fortified cities and military installations. Asteroid impact sites The Strogg capital, Cerberon, was constructed into Crator Majoris, with a smaller crater, Crater Minoris, located nearby that the Strogg used to house defenses for the city. Natural Defenses Stroggos has mountain ranges on it, although most are apparently as barren and desolate as much of the surface. These are, like many things, utilized by the ever resourceful and manipulative Strogg. The Core, the central base for all activities of the Strogg, was housed in a huge central tower, featuring the Nexus and other most imperative aspects of the Strogg war machine. This central tower was protected by a further 3 large towers. These towers were all well-fortified, utilizing natural defense, with the Core tower itself deeply dug into the ground. The three towers stood extremely tall as they were already atop massive geographic elevations. These towers were also built within viewing distance of each other, providing an extremely tough combined security for the central Core Nexus tower, where the Nexus and all of the most vitally Strogg technology and communications are based. This combines natural geographic defenses with the large size and extremely heavily defended nature of the towers and Core, which is to be expected given the importance of The Core to the Strogg. The Strogg therefore are clearly no strangers to the use of natural defenses in warfare, as their obsession has led them to have explore almost every form of warfare in its entirety. Stroggos geography also includes various geological formations such as caves, ridges and cliffs, providing evidence of geological activity of some sort in the past, although whether this was natural activity over billions of years or a result of some other aspect of the Strogg’s complete domination of aspects of their home world considered is not clear. It is also clear that these formations have undergone extensive weathering, suggesting immense age. Climate Information on the climate of Stroggos is limited. It is generally very calm and there is little reason to be concerned for the S.M.C. operations in this matter. Although Strogg facilities bear evidence of extensive weathering, the age and neglect of these rusting buildings suggests that the weather was not harsh on them. Human forces should be able to conduct operations without any concern for violent weather conditions. Nonetheless, there is little evidence of rainfall on Stroggos. The planet is slowly drying up, as the Strogg monopolize all moisture in their stroyent system that has become their chief wartime resource. Humans should be able to extract, and decontaminate, moisture from the air, however small its traces may be- in order to quench the thirst of an ever-fighting army on the planet. Ecology As well as the powerful Strogg civilization with its cities and many military-industrial facilities, Stroggos is also home to a severely stunted biosphere, primarily based in swamps and isolated canyons. It is thought that, prior to the Strogg devastating the world, it must have appeared similar to the Earth. Up to now, most life on Stroggos has fallen to one or more sad ends, including: Mutation: Those hardy native species which still survive on Stroggos, but which haven't been driven to extinction, or been co-opted as food or fresh warriors have, to a greater or lesser extent, become mutated. These mutations, caused by long-term exposure to mutagenic pollutants in the environment (deriving from Strogg industrial activities), allow those creatures to which the mutations are not crippling or otherwise fatal (likely a small percentage of the total affected populations) to survive in Stroggos' inhospitable industrial wastes. Side Note:' Given the complete absence of data on Stroggos' pre-industrial biosphere, and the lack of studies (particularly in the field of genetics) on the remaining few non-Strogg species, it is not possible to determine the precise extent to which mutations have altered the genetic codes and/or physical appearances of the affected creatures. That said, it is not unreasonable to believe that the surviving wildlife of present-day Stroggos bears little (if any) resemblance to its pre-industrial forms. Stroggification: This is perhaps the most harrowing fate to befall the native fauna of Stroggos: Being converted, through a long process of extensive and highly invasive surgical procedures (e.g. implantations, injections, amputations, transplants), into conscripted units in the Strogg military. Stroyentification: Anything which wasn't mutated beyond usability, successfully transferred into the ranks of the Strogg military machine, or driven to extinction, has probably ended up as Stroyent - the staple foodstuff of the Strogg race, which also has healing qualities for the Strogg. Extinction: Those life-forms which were of no use to the Strogg military-industrial complex, which could not adapt to survive in the harsh industrial wastelands, and which were not subjected (or could not survive exposure) to mutagenic pollutants, almost certainly died out entirely many years ago. So far, only three species have been encountered which have not been incorporated into the Strogg military, and each has suffered from the hard quest to survive life on Stroggos: 1. The Mutant, as its name suggests, is a species which has become heavily mutated, likely beyond all recognition, and almost certainly by toxic industrial pollutants generated by the Strogg military-industrial complex. 2. The Gekk, which is a social species similar in appearance to a large, almost lizard-like Great Ape, and prefers to live in swamps. These creatures are as hostile to the presence of Strogg as they are to Humans, and as such they are not regarded as Strogg military units, and were not observed in Quake 4. 3. The Barracuda Shark. A vicious, highly territorial pack hunting Shark-like species, they appear to infest many of the waterways of Stroggos, even somehow managing to make their way into heavily guarded Strogg facilities. Traversal of the waters of Stroggos is a hazardous affair at best, thanks to these creatures. The Strogg have been so pre-occupied with industrialization and constant warfare, that they have comprehensively ruined the world which gave them (or their creators) life. Perhaps this was a decisive factor in their becoming so completely dependent on technology. When a global ecosystem cannot hold together, the food chain collapses, and the air eventually becomes polluted that it is toxic. Wildlife dies out en masse and, in a desperate bid for self-preservatuion, the dominant predatory species (which, on Stroggos, would have been the original organic Strogg, if there ever was such a thing) is forced to seek any means it can, even grossly unethical and unnatural means', to preserve itself. The Strogg utilize the most unnatural processes imaginable to preserve their race. Civilization There is no record of any other civilization inhabiting Stroggos other than the Strogg themselves. They have displayed no interest in cultural development, as all efforts are placed in military, scientific, medical and industrial efforts, due to the barbaric priority of conquering other cultures. The Strogg civilization is largely an Earth parallel, although far more advanced and without any known development by the species in ethics, philosophy or religion. Clearly, therefore, the Strogg lacked key pressures that contributed to human evolution (altruism never evolved so remorse, pity or friendship were never Strogg traits or are at least long forgotten), despite their natural body design and physiology being similar, i.e. red blood. This could also be explained by the assumption by some Humans that the Strogg actually never were a biologically evolving species, but rather created by another, unknown race for the sole purpose of warfare, which would require no culture or ethics. Nearly all life on Stroggos is cybernetically augmented. The only exceptions are the mutants discovered in Quake 2. Society '''''Note: the following section in itallic is tangential and contains too much conjecture - delete or move somewhere else? In terms of society, The Strogg have proven to be incredibly complex. The evidence for this is explained during Quake 4, in an intelligence briefing to Rhino Squad before Operation: Last Hope. All imperative functions and aspects of the Strogg machine are housed within the Core, a huge and immensely well defended tower. This housed the Nexus, although whether this was actually a sentient creature in itself, controlling the Strogg as a manifestation of its malign will (which would suggest the Strogg evolved as a species up to their current state) or perhaps a more 'primitive' supercomputer merely making simple logic calculations or even executing an old programmed function (which would lend credence to the theory that the Strogg were created by another civilization as super-soldiers) is unclear; indeed, given the incomprehensible technological advances of the Strogg it could be a combination of these or something altogether different. What is clearer is that this Core appears to make all decisions to do with the Strogg's ongoing existence, utilizing the processes of the three other towers. These three supporting towers appear to have been built to simultaneously provide multilayered defense to the Core as well as being themselves utilized for important tasks in the ongoing processes of the Strogg civilization. These towers were Networking, presumably a central point linking together all Strogg computing and combat activities; Data Storage, presumably a vast store of Strogg data collected on all forms of technology, perhaps including that of conquered civilizations, intelligence and all other relevant information for the Strogg civilization and finally the Processing Center, which would presumably process all the vast amounts information gathered and send anything considered important to the Strogg war machine to Data Storage. This tower might could also process information to be distributed via Networking to the Nexus and from there to Strogg infantry units and commanders. However, this is speculation; however, given the Strogg's highly technologically advanced nature exactly what processes and tasks these towers accomplished might never be ascertained without knowledge of the technology itself. All of the processes within these towers, given the nature of the Strogg's highly advanced technology, are assumed to have been far beyond computing powers of human creations. Again speculating with the use of analogy, it is perhaps the case the the Strogg have used or even somehow copied the highly complex nature of organic brain matter, which similarly to the layout of the towers central to the workings of the Strogg and corresponding vastly advanced technology has vast networking, storage and processing abilities. If conceptualized in this way, the entire Strogg war machine can be imagined to be a single organism, with those unfortunate organisms captured robbed of the ability to think independently and adapted to service it. The brain of this organism is the towers and the Core. This is also suggested by the nature of the inner working of the towers, which as Matthew Kane and other marines explored them proved to be far beyond the capabilities of human technology. This is also reflected by the fact that all towers were well-fortified in a natural defense, with the Core tower itself deeply dug into the ground, perhaps analogous to a human skull. This inevitably begs the question of whether this system, society or whatever such term best describes the Strogg is some sort of pinnacle of evolution or the creation of another, long lost civilization for the purpose of generating an army, or perhaps even a blend of these two concepts. Unfortunately a concrete answer is likely to never be found, given the hostile nature of the Strogg making destruction of this incredible technology almost certainly likely before it can be properly understood. The effects of the events in Quake 4 upon the Strogg are unknown, although it is reasonable to assume that the destruction of the Nexus will have had a savagery effect upon the Strogg, disorientating its workings and society and leaving its drones without instructions, a severely disruptive development having originally been automatons controlled simultaneously and directly by the Nexus, analogous to a human operating its extremities. Future games may explain further the results of this but until such information is released only speculation on the workings of the Strogg is possible. References Category:Locations Category:Background